The properties of surfaces are known to be important to a broad spectrum of technologies, such as improved wear resistance, water-repellant fabrics, anti-reflective coatings, packaging materials, biomedical implants and prostheses, and the like. Many efforts have focused on controlling and improving upon existing surfaces.
Recently, there has been significant interest in properties of nanometer sized materials because the large surface to volume ratio in the nanometer size scale can lead to unexpected properties. However, techniques for modifying surfaces with nanometers sized material (i.e., nanoparticles) are not well-developed.